Motor vehicle



Filed Nov. 15, 1953 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR BY W Aug. 30,- 1938'. v, A. MOORHOUSE MOTOR VEHICLE Filed Nov. 15, 1933 -s Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEY;

Aug; 1938- A. MOORHOUSE 2,128,660

MOTOR VEHICLE Filed Nov. 15, 1933 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR 409421 flaarkazase R BY ATTORNEY'S Patented Aug. 30, 1938 I i 4 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MOTOR VEHICLE Alfred Moorhouse, Detroit, Mich. Application November 15; 1933, Serial No. 698,202 3 Claims. (Cl. 180-1) The invention relates to motor vehicles and ing only a pivotal connection with said frame. more particularly to that type known as front I have also designed a peculiar construction of axle drive. It is the object of the invention to resiliently yieldable axle frame on which the obtain various advantages among which are motor is directly mountedr 5 First, greater lateral stability; In detail, A are the side sills of the chassis 5 Second, easy riding qualities; frame which are connected by a central cross Third, elimination of torsional stresses in the member B, a rear cross member C and forward chassis frame and body, and cross members D, E and F. G is the rear axle Fourth, the checking of periodic oscillations which is connected to an independent frame H. I such forinstance as that known as shimmy. The forward end of this frame has a universal 10 With these and various other specific adva'npivotal connection I at the center of the cross 'tages in view, the invention consists in the conmember B and the rear end has an upward struction as hereinafter set forth. extension H which is centrally connected to a In the drawings: cross spring J. The latter is in the form of a Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of my substantially straight leaf spring, the opposite 15 improved vehicle; ends of which are pivotally connected to upward Fig. 2 is a plan view of the chassis with the extension C and C of the cross member C. body removed; g with a link K at one end to compensate for lat- Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation in the transverse eral deflection. The axle G at the point of conplane of the forward driving axle; nection LO the frame H is bent downward below 20 Fig. 4 is a rear elevation showing the rear the axis of the wheels and the side sills A are bent spring suspension. upward at A to pass over and provide clearance With spring suspensions of the usual type emabove said axle. 'ployed on motor vehicles, the center of gravity of L is the power unit including the motor, transthe sprung weight lies above the supporting mission and front axle drive. This unit instead 25 springs. Consequently where there is av change of being directly mounted on the chassis frame in direction of travel, the yielding of the springs is resiliently supported on a front axle frame will permitalateral shifting of the sprung weight of the following construction. M and M are with a tendency to overturn the vehicle. It is triangular frames, the base portions of which therefore one of the specific objects of the presare pivotally connected at N to arms N on the 30 ent invention to obtain a construction in which housing of the power unit. 0 and 0' are similar the sprung mass is held from any lateral shifttriangular frames arranged above and parallel to, ing. It is a further object to provide an unyieldframes M and M and similarly pivotally .coning lateral thrust connection between the sprung nected at N to the arms N. The outer ends of frame and the supporting running gear which each pair of these parallel frames are universally 3 is located substantially in line with the center of pivotally connected to a steering axle P for a gravity of the sprung mass, thereby balancing front driving wheel. Theframes O and O are the inertial forces above and below and avoidfurther provided with upwardly extending bell ing any tendency towards rotation. Still further crank arms Q and Q with an inclined brace 4!) it is an object to obtain a spring suspension in member Q between which is arranged a compres- 40 which the springs respond only to vertical oscillasion spring R. Thus the load of the power unit tions and are uninfluenced by either positive or is resiliently carried by this spring R, the reacnegative acceleration of the vehicle. This pertion of which is to oppose downward movement mits of using lighter springs which are'more senof the inner ends of the parallelogram frames. sitive to vertical oscillations, and which therefore As specifically shown, the opposite ends of the produce better riding qualities. spring R. engage sleeve abutments R pivotally Motor vehicle bodies as usually mounted on the connected to the frames 0 and 0 and independframe are subjected to torsional stresses necessiently slidable on a rod R which also carries a tating a strength of construction which would buffer block R between the inner end. of said not-otherwise be needed' I have avoided such sleeves. However, the power unit L is also con- 50 torsional stresses by a three-point support of nected with the chassis frame by aligned pivots the body carrying frame upon the running gear. E and F on the cross members E and F re- Finally, the motor instead of being rigid with spec'tively in front and in rear of the engine porthe chassis frame which supports thev body, is tion of the unit. The arrangement is such that independently carried on the driving axle havthe chassis frame has in effect a three-point 55 to the furcations thereof.

suspension, one point being formed by the aligned pivots E, F, and the other two points at the ends of the spring J. Also, these points are at such an elevation as to be substantially in the horizontal plane of the center of gravity of the chassis frame and load supported thereon indicated by the line a::t:, Figure I.

With the construction as thus far described, it will be understood that the body S can be directly mounted upon the sills A but that neither the body nor the chassis frame will be subjected to any torsional stresses, due to unevenness in the road bed or from any other cause.

At the same time the power unit has a spring support on the wheels, the pivots N and N permitting relative oscillation of said unit and the parallelogram frames M, M, O, To avoid any lack of stability, these parallelogram frames are cross connected so that the oscillation of the frames on one side compels a similar movement of the frames on the opposite side. This is accomplished by a lever T pivoted at T to any. convenient point on the housing of the power unit, one end of said lever being pivotally connected by the link 'I' with the bell crank arm Q and the other end being pivotally connected by the link T with the bell crank arm Q.

The power transmission between the engine and the driving wheels is not illustrated in detail, as this forms no part of the present invention. However, as shown, power is communicated through a gear U and associated differential gearing to shafts U and U2 connected by universal joints U with shafts U extending to the opposite wheels. The shafts U in turn are connected by universals U and U with a stub shaft U having a driving connection with the wheel V. To provide space for this driving connection the steering axle P is bifurcated to embrace the shafts and universals and king pins P, P are secured The frames M, M, O, O- are then connected to the king pins by universal joints P which permit both the oscillation of said frames on said king plns and the turning of the steering axle about the axisof said pin. One important advantage of mounting the power unit on the axle is that the increase in mass slows the period of oscillation thereof. This checks any tendency towards shimmy or other periodic oscillations incident to running at high speed.

What I claim as my invention is:

'1. In a motor vehicle, the combination with a pair of wheeled axles, of a power unit having a spring support on one of said axles and a driving connection with the wheels thereof, a frame pivotally connected to said power unit for relative rotation about a longitudinal axis and a transversely extending leaf spring forming a connection between said frame and the other axle, said spring and pivotal connection being arranged substantially in line with the center of gravity of the mass supported by the frame and said spring being substantially straight under normal load and forming an unyielding lateral thrust connection between said frame and axle.

2. In a motor vehicle, a power unit, a driving axle having oppositely extending parallelogram frames pivotally connected at their inner ends to said, power unit, wheels supporting the outer ends of said frames, a flexible driving connection between said powerunit and wheels, bell crank levers respectively rigid with one member of each of said oppositely extending parallelogram frames and a compression spring between said bell crank levers for yieldably supporting the load of said power unit.

3. In a motor vehicle, a power unit, a pair of oppositely extending parallelogram frames pivotally connected at their inner ends to said power unit, wheel engaging stub axles pivotally connected at the outer ends of each of said oppositely extending parallelogram frames, wheels for supporting said axles, a flexible driving connection between said power unit and said axles, bell crank arms extending from one member of each of said oppositely extending parallelogram frames, a compression spring between said bell crank arms and an equalizer cross connecting said oppositely extending parallelogram frames to compel equal movement thereof with respect to said power unit.

ALFRED MOORHOUSE. 

